It's funny the way life works itself out sometimes. I want to tell you a story, a true story about my life in the past year. Before I turned 32 last year, I remember having a dream but at the time I didn't think it would be as true as I thought.
It was like any other night. I was tired and ready to hit the pillow for the night. Upon waking up the next morning, I was reminded about this dream I had. Now, a sidebar here: I don't usually remember the intricate details of my dreams, I do, however have a lot of instances with deja vu, but that's another story for another time. So in this dream, there were no visuals, just spoken words, which is strange but just go with me here. The words that were spoken were brief and just said that I was 'going to die during my 32nd year'. What????! Thinking really nothing of it, I dropped the notion and tucked it into the back of my mind, leaving it to fester there until this day. Was I really going to die? A fun fact most people don't know about me is that I have a tremendous phobia of death. Not so much what comes after but the actual physical act. I remember thinking that I have so much work to do in my life and to die at such an early age would really put a cramp in my plans, lol. I've dreamt about death and dying before but something about this one was different. I didn't know it at the time but looking back in retrospect, the John that existed a year ago, is now slowly on his deathbed waiting to cross-over to the other side.
Upon turning 32, I was in the final few weeks of my education at the National Personal Training Institute, therefore becoming a certified trainer and was going to start looking for employment as a side job to foster my passion for helping others. I did graduate in July, gaining my Personal Training certification and later on in October, I obtained my Spinning Instruction certification as well. Later that month I was approached by a fitness studio owner on Facebook concerning an opportunity to teach Spin classes in her studio a few evenings a week to gain experience and in turn, I received free training for myself. Although, the experience was good for my group training repertoire, I left this position in mid-March of 2015.
Let's rewind to August 30, 2014. This is definitely a day to remember, as it was the day I went on my first date with my now-steady boyfriend of almost 8 months, Dale. Meeting him was purely incidental and coincidental. I remember about a week before our first date, I was loading new apps on my phone and OkCupid popped up for some reason. I thought, "What the hell?" and downloaded it, created a profile and looked at my matches. I never really was the relationship kind of guy and I think when you're gay, that's almost the norm. I think I needed to find out who I was and do my work on myself before I could let someone else in to my life. That's probably why I went on so many dates that never went any further than the first date. I met Dale at Starbucks in West View, just down the street from the animal hospital where he worked as a Veterinary Technician and Certified Animal Rehabilitation Specialist. The date lasted for about 3 hours and I've never been invested in hearing about someone as much as I did his stories about his life and such. Coming out at 28 years old is
considered ancient in gay years, just ask your closest gay friend and he'll clue you in! Dale had a similar story of coming out like mine was and he asked me out again for later that week. Over time, I began to gain feelings of compassion, love and all those mushy feelings that you hear about in love stories. To date, Dale and I have been dating for eight months on April 30th and I couldn't be happier. Dale has taught me so much about myself and what I can handle and just how strong I am. As cliché as the adage is, love really does find you when you are not looking for it but when you are ready to receive it. It's so cool that I have someone to confide in, share my successes with, lean on for support and encouragement when I need it and he can do the same. I continually learn from Dale each and every day and it is an adventure! I definitely found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with in him.
If finding my one true love wasn't enough, in about mid-January, both Dale and were riding along a street in White Oak and from out of nowhere , BAM!, I was hit on the driver's side of my car. I totally lost it, my adrenaline took over and I just started screaming. Dale remained calm and just held me and told me everything was going to be alright, which it did turn out to be. Thank God he was there. On February 1, 2015, I did find myself driving a 2014 Kia Forte from the car dealership to my house to park in my driveway! Having been driving a Mazda 3 for sometime before that, this car is definitely an upgrade! I'm loving the satellite radio, I may never burn another CD again!
Another great opportunity that has recently surfaced in my life is I've been blessed to join the Pittsburgh Fitness Project under the direction and ownership of my friend and former trainer, Tom Duer. After leaving my previous job as a Spinning Instructor and the negative experience that I had, I was very discouraged and turned off of fitness as a whole for a while. But going to the first meeting and listening to all of the trainers there talk about how motivated they were about getting Pittsburgh healthy and in shape, I couldn't help but get excited about it! I have a lot of great ideas for group fitness classes that are geared toward getting kids and teenagers active and feeling great about themselves. I think that in 2015, especially now with the way the media distorts the whole 'beauty' issue, kids need to find activities to make them feel good about themselves and gets them off the couch from playing video games! More to come on this exciting and new development in a few months!
Probably the most important thing to change in my life actually just happened last Friday, as a matter of fact. I was offered a full-time position at the Center for Rehab Services at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Uptown Pittsburgh as a Rehab Aide/Tech. I will be working on four units within the hospital: Burn, Stroke, Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury. My job will be to assist the PT's, OT's and SLT's in pre-therapeutic interventions and modalities prior to the patient working with the main therapist. In addition to that, I will basically be responsible, along with the other Aides, for the scheduling of patients, having the therapists know which patients they see and when, as well as answering in patients calls from their rooms. Words cannot describe how much I am looking forward to this new endeavor and how proud I am that UPMC and the interviewers saw the potential in me. I've always wanted to work in a hospital and now I am! And I can wear scrubs too, sure beats Khaki's and polos everyday! The downside to the job is that I will be leaving my 2nd family at The Children's Institute of 6 years. But I know that I will be more professionally 'at-home' in my new role at Mercy. Everything I've worked for up to this point has led me to this moment in time and I am not going to take this for granted. One of the most important details to working here is that I get to continue my education towards being a Physical Therapist Assistant with the help of UPMC and the therapists and I couldn't be more excited to learn as a professional.
So, in a weird way, I did die, the old me at least. In dream analysis, Freud says that usually if you dream about death, you really are supposed to experience some sort of change but obviously, you won't know what the change will be or when it happens. I'm not the same guy I was back in June of last year and I'm so happy I'm not. I've grown so much as a person and after talking with my co-worker Janet this afternoon, she reminded me that after all the struggles I have gone through, not just talking about my illness but with my education, in love and just life in general, they have all prepared me for this specific moment in time. To finally reap some of the benefits from all that I have endured in my life. If ever there was a moment that I needed hardcore proof of a higher power, this is it. I don't think that all these things could lay themselves out so perfectly in front of me without someone helping them fall into place.
So I died. Don't cry for me because I am in a MUCH better place than I was before. I think everybody should have the opportunity to die once in their lives, because I think only then it is possible for us to really live. Why? Cause we're survivors.
It was like any other night. I was tired and ready to hit the pillow for the night. Upon waking up the next morning, I was reminded about this dream I had. Now, a sidebar here: I don't usually remember the intricate details of my dreams, I do, however have a lot of instances with deja vu, but that's another story for another time. So in this dream, there were no visuals, just spoken words, which is strange but just go with me here. The words that were spoken were brief and just said that I was 'going to die during my 32nd year'. What????! Thinking really nothing of it, I dropped the notion and tucked it into the back of my mind, leaving it to fester there until this day. Was I really going to die? A fun fact most people don't know about me is that I have a tremendous phobia of death. Not so much what comes after but the actual physical act. I remember thinking that I have so much work to do in my life and to die at such an early age would really put a cramp in my plans, lol. I've dreamt about death and dying before but something about this one was different. I didn't know it at the time but looking back in retrospect, the John that existed a year ago, is now slowly on his deathbed waiting to cross-over to the other side.
Upon turning 32, I was in the final few weeks of my education at the National Personal Training Institute, therefore becoming a certified trainer and was going to start looking for employment as a side job to foster my passion for helping others. I did graduate in July, gaining my Personal Training certification and later on in October, I obtained my Spinning Instruction certification as well. Later that month I was approached by a fitness studio owner on Facebook concerning an opportunity to teach Spin classes in her studio a few evenings a week to gain experience and in turn, I received free training for myself. Although, the experience was good for my group training repertoire, I left this position in mid-March of 2015.
Let's rewind to August 30, 2014. This is definitely a day to remember, as it was the day I went on my first date with my now-steady boyfriend of almost 8 months, Dale. Meeting him was purely incidental and coincidental. I remember about a week before our first date, I was loading new apps on my phone and OkCupid popped up for some reason. I thought, "What the hell?" and downloaded it, created a profile and looked at my matches. I never really was the relationship kind of guy and I think when you're gay, that's almost the norm. I think I needed to find out who I was and do my work on myself before I could let someone else in to my life. That's probably why I went on so many dates that never went any further than the first date. I met Dale at Starbucks in West View, just down the street from the animal hospital where he worked as a Veterinary Technician and Certified Animal Rehabilitation Specialist. The date lasted for about 3 hours and I've never been invested in hearing about someone as much as I did his stories about his life and such. Coming out at 28 years old is
considered ancient in gay years, just ask your closest gay friend and he'll clue you in! Dale had a similar story of coming out like mine was and he asked me out again for later that week. Over time, I began to gain feelings of compassion, love and all those mushy feelings that you hear about in love stories. To date, Dale and I have been dating for eight months on April 30th and I couldn't be happier. Dale has taught me so much about myself and what I can handle and just how strong I am. As cliché as the adage is, love really does find you when you are not looking for it but when you are ready to receive it. It's so cool that I have someone to confide in, share my successes with, lean on for support and encouragement when I need it and he can do the same. I continually learn from Dale each and every day and it is an adventure! I definitely found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with in him.If finding my one true love wasn't enough, in about mid-January, both Dale and were riding along a street in White Oak and from out of nowhere , BAM!, I was hit on the driver's side of my car. I totally lost it, my adrenaline took over and I just started screaming. Dale remained calm and just held me and told me everything was going to be alright, which it did turn out to be. Thank God he was there. On February 1, 2015, I did find myself driving a 2014 Kia Forte from the car dealership to my house to park in my driveway! Having been driving a Mazda 3 for sometime before that, this car is definitely an upgrade! I'm loving the satellite radio, I may never burn another CD again!
Another great opportunity that has recently surfaced in my life is I've been blessed to join the Pittsburgh Fitness Project under the direction and ownership of my friend and former trainer, Tom Duer. After leaving my previous job as a Spinning Instructor and the negative experience that I had, I was very discouraged and turned off of fitness as a whole for a while. But going to the first meeting and listening to all of the trainers there talk about how motivated they were about getting Pittsburgh healthy and in shape, I couldn't help but get excited about it! I have a lot of great ideas for group fitness classes that are geared toward getting kids and teenagers active and feeling great about themselves. I think that in 2015, especially now with the way the media distorts the whole 'beauty' issue, kids need to find activities to make them feel good about themselves and gets them off the couch from playing video games! More to come on this exciting and new development in a few months!
Probably the most important thing to change in my life actually just happened last Friday, as a matter of fact. I was offered a full-time position at the Center for Rehab Services at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Uptown Pittsburgh as a Rehab Aide/Tech. I will be working on four units within the hospital: Burn, Stroke, Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury. My job will be to assist the PT's, OT's and SLT's in pre-therapeutic interventions and modalities prior to the patient working with the main therapist. In addition to that, I will basically be responsible, along with the other Aides, for the scheduling of patients, having the therapists know which patients they see and when, as well as answering in patients calls from their rooms. Words cannot describe how much I am looking forward to this new endeavor and how proud I am that UPMC and the interviewers saw the potential in me. I've always wanted to work in a hospital and now I am! And I can wear scrubs too, sure beats Khaki's and polos everyday! The downside to the job is that I will be leaving my 2nd family at The Children's Institute of 6 years. But I know that I will be more professionally 'at-home' in my new role at Mercy. Everything I've worked for up to this point has led me to this moment in time and I am not going to take this for granted. One of the most important details to working here is that I get to continue my education towards being a Physical Therapist Assistant with the help of UPMC and the therapists and I couldn't be more excited to learn as a professional.So, in a weird way, I did die, the old me at least. In dream analysis, Freud says that usually if you dream about death, you really are supposed to experience some sort of change but obviously, you won't know what the change will be or when it happens. I'm not the same guy I was back in June of last year and I'm so happy I'm not. I've grown so much as a person and after talking with my co-worker Janet this afternoon, she reminded me that after all the struggles I have gone through, not just talking about my illness but with my education, in love and just life in general, they have all prepared me for this specific moment in time. To finally reap some of the benefits from all that I have endured in my life. If ever there was a moment that I needed hardcore proof of a higher power, this is it. I don't think that all these things could lay themselves out so perfectly in front of me without someone helping them fall into place.
So I died. Don't cry for me because I am in a MUCH better place than I was before. I think everybody should have the opportunity to die once in their lives, because I think only then it is possible for us to really live. Why? Cause we're survivors.
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